The present invention relates to face shields and visors and especially to motorcycle helmet face shields and visors for attaching to protective helmets and especially to such a face shield visor combination in which the face shield can be lifted and held in different positions.
In the past, a variety of helmets have been designated for use by motorcycle riders, race car drivers, and the like, to protect the head of the user against damage in the event of an accident. The helmets typically provide a male portion of a snap fastener for attaching face shields and/or visors to the helmet. The face shield protects the user of the motorcycle from the wind, rain and the like, when riding the motorcycle, while the visor shades the eyes and face from the sun. The face shield, however, is most likely to become damaged or scratched over a period of time and replaceable face shields as well as visors have been provided by a number of manufacturers for the different helmets which may have differently positioned male snap fastener portions.
The present invention is directed towards a visor and shield combination and is adjustable to fit a variety of safety helmets having studs located in different positions in which the studs for attaching the shield to the visor as well as for attaching racing peel-off strips molded into the shield along with a center snap for holding the shield in position on the visor. The center snap can be quickly unsnapped to allow the raising of the shield and the shield is attached to the visor in a manner that it will hold its position when raised. The prior art has typically provided helmets, visors and shields which have one portion of metal snap fasteners which use female sockets with brass or bronze rings mounted therein which are expensive to purchase and attach to the face shields and visors and which require snap machines as well as employees to operate the snap machines to place the snap fasteners in place. Snap fasteners frequently are attached in slots so that they can be slid in different positions for attaching to helmets. In addition to the additional costs, this results in a number of rejects associated with the snap fastener machinery. In addition, the metal snap fasteners being loosely fitted with ring snaps therein tend to rattle when wind or stresses are put onto the attached face shield. The present invention overcomes these problems by providing molded-in plastic snap fastener portions as well as studs for attaching the shield to the visor for holding the visor in place on the shield. Typical prior art includes not only flip shields but flip shields mounted to bands with rivets for attachment to the helmets. The shield is riveted to the band having female snap portions for engaging with male snap portions on the helmet. Some visor mounted shields use a male square shank post having a head which is inserted through the visor and a screw placed therethrough and tensioned to hold the shield to the visor or band allowing the pivoting up and down. A series of serrations moderately tensioned together has also been suggested along with a tension spring utilizing a common rivet to hold the two units tensioned. All of these units typically require considerable hand labor or complex machine labor in order to assemble the shield to the visor or band, and the parts used for assembly are more costly.